The PP does not want to continue being the party of no. This prevents him from continuing to advance in expanding his electoral base, and could lead him to lose part of the 600,000 Spaniards who voted for the PSOE four years ago and would now be willing to vote for the PP, according to polls. For this reason, the PP is inclined to vote "abstention" when the decree of law with the anti-crisis measures that the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced on December 27, is brought to Congress, which includes a reduction in VAT on basic foods of the shopping basket, or the withdrawal of the general aid of 20 cents on gasoline.
One abstention, because many of the measures included in the decree law had already been proposed by the PP, such as the VAT reduction on basic necessities, to stop the consequences of inflation in the pockets of citizens, but not a vote affirmative, because these measures, copied, are not exactly the same, but rather "fall short", in addition to arriving late, since the PP proposed them last September.
As an example, that the sectors to which the aid of 20 cents for fuels is maintained does not include, for example, the self-employed, or that the VAT reduction from 10 to 5% does not include meat and fish. For this reason, the PP is inclined to abstain. In order for it to take the step of passing the affirmative vote, the Government would have to include these measures in the decree, that of the self-employed and meat and fish, but also the elimination of the plastic tax, which in the current circumstances can make it nothing notices the income tax reduction, or that the check of 200 euros to families is increased (the PP had proposed 300), that it be expanded and reach those who work up to 20,000 euros, (the Government proposal is up to 14,000 ), and that the processing does not require that the citizen have to request it, because the Tax Agency "knows perfectly" which people could benefit, according to the deputy secretary of economy of the PP, Juan Bravo, at a press conference held this Monday in Madrid .
What the popular leader is clear about is that "we are not going to vote against," he assured, although he made a caveat, that issues that have nothing to do with the anti-crisis measures explained by the president are incorporated into that decree law at the last minute. of the Government, but there is a distance to be able to vote in favour, because it would require the Executive to amend its measures to bring them even closer to those that the PP proposed in its day.
That does not mean that the PP maintains a very critical position regarding the current economic situation and the policy carried out by the Government. For example, with regard to inflation, because if it is true that it has remained at 5.8, the underlying one reaches 6.9, which added to that of the previous year, that of 2021, which was 6 .5% means that the pockets of citizens have lost more than 12 points of purchasing power. "It's not to puff out," said Juan Bravo.
To this is added, he stressed, the debt "that we will have to pay and repay", which can lead to the fact that the social policies that would be necessary in a Spain with the current social situation cannot be carried out; coupled with the fact that "we are not growing" and Spain has not yet recovered the level of GDP it had before the pandemic. In fact, the head of the PP's economy recalled that today the International Monetary Fund has lowered Spain's growth forecasts to 1.3.
